RIDING-SCHOOLS. 33 



work outside, and in company. As horses in the army, 

 owing to their large number, are broken in " rides " of 

 several at a time, a certain proportion of them contract 

 the vice of refusing to leave the ranks or to act inde- 

 pendently, which, I need hardly say, is a form of jibbing. 

 The same detestable vice is often met with in the hunting 

 field, from the fact of timid or incompetent riders seeking 

 for a lead. The instinct of imitation in the horse is far 

 more of a hindrance than of an aid to the breaker who 

 aspires to teach a horse to implicitly obey his rider or driver. 

 Even the most experienced will require no argument to 

 understand that a horse which will not take his own line, 

 or will not, for instance, jump in " cold blood," is not 

 half broken. 



To many persons who regard horse-breaking as a purely 

 empirical art, the mention of a riding-school as a place of 

 instruction for a young hunter, race-horse, or chaser, is like 

 the showing of a red rag to the proverbial buh 1 . We must, 

 of course, bear in mind, that mere personal opinions have 

 no part in the science of horse-breaking. The prejudice 

 against riding-school work has no doubt arisen from the 

 fact, that as a rule, the manage has been used for the train- 

 ing of horses only for military, school, or circus purposes ; 

 and has not been hitherto utilised to any great extent for 

 preparing them for the field or road. I can say from 

 experience, that anyone who has used a suitable enclosure 

 for the preparatory teaching of, for instance, 'cross-country 

 horses and hacks, and has had subsequently to do the work 

 without a school of this kind, will keenly appreciate the 

 great advantage the use of a manage gives him in gain- 

 ing the attention of his pupils, and in rendering them 

 obedient. 



I may here allude to the fact that over-stimulation of the 

 nerves, whether in a mental or physical respect, tends to 



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